Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?

美國人英國人：口音為什么會不同？

In 1776, whether you were declaring America independent from the crown or swearing your loyalty to King George III, your pronunciation would have been much the same. At that time, American and British accents hadn’t yet diverged. What’s surprising, though, is that Hollywood costume dramas get it all wrong: The Patriots and the Redcoats spoke with accents that were much closer to the contemporary American accent than to the Queen’s English.

1776年，無論是美國人宣布國家獨立或英國人宣誓效忠英王喬治三世，人們的發音都大致相同。當時，美國和英國口音尚未分化。然而，令人驚訝的是，好萊塢古裝片都搞錯了：愛國者美國兵和英國兵（注：美國獨立戰爭時期英國士兵穿紅色軍上衣）的發音更接近當代美國口音而不是女王時期的標準英語。

It is the standard British accent that has drastically changed in the past two centuries, while the typical American accent has changed only subtly.

在過去的兩個世紀，標準的英國口音已發生巨大變化，而典型的美國口音則只有微妙改變。

Traditional English, whether spoken in the British Isles or the American colonies, was largely "rhotic." Rhotic speakers pronounce the "R" sound in such words as "hard" and "winter," while non-rhotic speakers do not. Today, however, non-rhotic speech is common throughout most of Britain. For example, most modern Brits would tell you it’s been a "hahd wintuh."

傳統英語，無論是在英倫三島或美國殖民地，其發音大部分都帶有“卷舌音” 。帶卷舌音的人在說 "hard（艱難）" 和 "winter（冬季）" 這類詞時，總是發出“R”音，而不帶卷舌音的人則不然。然而今天，在英國大部分地區，人們說話通常都不帶卷舌音。例如，大部分現在英國人會跟你說，這是一個“hahd wintuh（嚴冬）”。

It was around the time of the American Revolution that non-rhotic speech came into use among the upper class in southern England, in and around London. According to John Algeo in "The Cambridge History of the English Language" (Cambridge University Press, 2001), this shift occurred because people of low birth rank who had become wealthy during the Industrial Revolution were seeking ways to distinguishthemselves from other commoners; they cultivated the prestigious non-rhotic pronunciation in order to demonstrate their new upper-class status.

大約在美國獨立戰爭時期，在倫敦及附近地區，英格蘭南部的上層階級之間開始用非卷舌音講話。據約翰·艾爾吉奧在《劍橋英語史》（劍橋大學出版社，2001年）的說法，之所以發生這種轉變，因為出生于低階層的人們在工業革命時期已發家致富，他們極力尋求使自己有別于其他平民的方法；他們逐步養成久負盛名的非卷舌音發音，以顯示他們的新貴地位。

"London pronunciation became the prerogative of a new breed of specialists — orthoepists and teachers of elocution. The orthoepists decided upon correct pronunciations, compiled pronouncing dictionaries and, in private and expensive tutoring sessions, drilled enterprising citizens in fashionable articulation," Algeo wrote.

艾爾吉奧寫道：“倫敦發音成為專家們（正音學研究者和朗誦教師）對一種新口音的特權。正音學研究者們決定修正發音，編纂發音詞典，并在私下收費高昂的輔導課上，用流行的發音方式對一些努力進取的公民進行訓練”。

The lofty manner of speech developed by these specialists gradually became standardized — it is officially called "Received Pronunciation" — and it spread across Britain. However, people in the north of England, Scotland and Ireland have largely maintained their traditional rhotic accents.

由這些專家們開發的高傲講話方式逐漸成為標準化 -被正式稱為“標準發音” -在英國各地傳播開來。不過，在英格蘭北部、蘇格蘭和愛爾蘭的人們大部分都還保持其傳統帶卷舌音的口音。

Most American accents have also remained rhotic, with some exceptions: New York and Boston accents have become non-rhotic. According to Algeo, after the Revolutionary War, these cities were "under the strongest influence by the British elite."

大多數美國人的口音也保持卷舌音，當然也有例外：紐約和波士頓口音已成為非卷舌音。據艾爾吉奧的說法，獨立戰爭后，這些城市“受英國精英們的影響最大。”

(編輯：何瑩瑩）